Channelling Sales

With the amount of technology changes taking place in unified communications, it is pretty easy to just discuss the technology. There's the pads vs. the softphones vs. communication enabled applications. There's wireless debates about Wi-Fi vs. DECT, there's premise vs. cloud vs. virtual vs. dedicated. There's proprietary tablets, applets, APIs, and protocols vs. standards based and open source solutions and so many more issues. All of these are important conversations. But there's one UC conversation that should and will trump all the tech - the channel.

The channel is becoming the critical conversation, and for most vendors it will determine ultimate success or failure. The best technology is useless if it can't find its way to where it is needed, and that's a realistic possibility for many of the UC cast of players.

The term "disruptive" technology gets used quite a bit with UC. Here is a short recap on what makes a technology disruptive. To simplify, assume there are only two kinds of technologies; sustaining technologies and disruptive technologies. Most technology improvements are the former that effectively strengthen or improve the existing value proposition. Newer car models get slightly improved mileage, cameras get better lenses, etc. Then, every once in a while, a disruptive technology comes along that changes the value proposition - often initially with a forced compromise. Digital cameras initially had far inferior quality to film cameras, not to mention they were more expensive. Hardly a threat to say Kodak - the undisputed leader of photography chemicals. But traveling journalists preferred digital cameras, as they could send their photos over a modem or network rather than sending a film can via courier.

Eventually these technologies improve and often overtakes the prior model, which causes the entire industry to become "disrupted." Back to the digital camera, with the explosion of the web and email, the digital camera appealed to a larger audience than journalists. Digital cameras offered a new value proposition - immediate feedback, e-ready, and no per shot processing fee. As photography became more consumer electronics oriented, the vendor landscape changed as did the channel. New vendors such as Sony and Panasonic entered photography, new channels emerged as well as a new ecosystem (Picnik, Flickr, digital picture frames, etc.). And, unfortunately, the previous leader Kodak got left behind as did many of the channel partners (remember camera stores or those little parking-lot photo processing booths?

VoIP was considered a disruptive technology - and with it we saw Cisco and ShoreTel rise as new entrants, Nortel fall, and several major shifts occurred in the channel as network savvy channel players that understood routing, firewalls, wi-fi, POE, etc. entered the voice space. The buyer also changed - and the CIO got dragged (kicking and screaming) into voice, Now, the disruption is happening all over again with unified communications.

On the supply side there are numerous shifts occurring - companies like Microsoft/Skype, and IBM entered the space, and numerous service providers are offering UC, infrastructure, and even APIs as a service model. The value proposition is changing dramatically with the notions of unified clients, CEBP, and SIP which enables multi-modal and/or centralized communications over shared infrastructure. Of course, the channel wants to be caught in the middle, but it is finding that it is being pushed to the side. Ironically, not by any one's choice.

The vendors increasingly view the channel as critical, and realistically they can't afford to build a direct sales team to educate prospects on UC, much less install and support this stuff. When education increases, so does the value of the channel. The disparity is a result of a skills gap. The technology is changing rapidly, the solutions are complex, and sales cycles are long. The vendors fantasize (and search) for the perfect channel partner that looks something like this: has a huge happy mid-mkt to enterprise customer base equating to a fat sales pipe, blessed with extraordinarily broad skills across the UC gambit (voice, video, virtualization, desktops, AD, Dev, Exchange, SBCs, etc.), and of course fully certified and loyal to the brand in question (or disloyal to a competitive brand).

This search is reminiscent of Ahab's for the white whale. Such partners do exist, but the strategy of the hunt is questionable. Instead of recruitment, the better strategy is development of channel partners. A much slower, but more effective long term strategy. There are a lot of traditional voice dealers that want to make the plunge - but new tech and slow economies are a terrible mix for most dealers. Vendors need to lay a yellow-brick path of least resistance to UC for dealers to follow. That path needs to include:

• Training. Sales and technical. Too many manufacturers are still treating tech training as a profit center. It needs to be online, accessible, free (with restrictions), and broad.
  
  
• Demo equipment. We got the memo, it's a software based world, make it free-NFR to the dealers - it's the cheapest way to buy loyalty, as well as informal sales training and informal tech training.
  
  
• Big picture. No matter how you slice it, UC isn't a single vendor solution - that should be reflected in the training and required certifications. Recognize partner sales and certs.
  
  
• Recognize and reward effort - certifications are critical.
  
  
• Indirect Distribution: Two tier distributors can do a lot of heavy lifting around recruitment, management, training, and financing.
  
  
• Update programs to reflect the technology. That means eliminating territory restrictions.
  
  
• Eliminate channel conflict. Sounds easy until you consider cloud models, and under-served markets. This is a complex problem, but one that can torpedo the other efforts if done incorrectly.
  
  
• Offer professional services - may be critical to get new resellers on-board.
  
  
• Focus rewards on commitment, not just sales. This includes technical and sales certifications, in-house use, marketing campaigns, etc.

The channel is going to be more critical to success than product over the next few years. It really is the critical battleground. There is a lot of hype about "commitment to the channel," but actions are louder than words. Too many vendors are hung up on discounts and low hanging quarterly fruit. It's the classic parable about throwing the hungry a seafood dinner or teaching them to fish.

The UC Summit, hosted in the Spring by UCStrategies is a great way for channel partners to evaluate and compare vendor programs. Watch UCStrategies for details.

Dave Michels is a frequent contributor and blogs about telecom and UC at www.pindropsoup.com.